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Greyhounds rally to win in Kitchener

Dissatisfied with the effort of his veterans of late, Soo Greyhounds head coach Sheldon Keefe had been stressing the need for his older players to step up at key times.

Defenceman Colin Miller took care of that Sunday in Kitchener.

While killing a penalty late in a 3-3 tie, Miller knocked the puck out of his own zone, eluded two defenders and set up Jared McCann for what proved to be the winning goal.

Brandon Alderson added another short-handed marker into an empty net in the final minute, as the Hounds rallied from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Rangers 5-3 before 7,301 at Kitchener Memorial Auditorium.

“That was a big turning point for us,” said Miller, the club's overage captain. “I thought we played well the whole game and we weren't going to be denied.”

“He (Miller) made an unbelievable play,” said McCann, a 16-year-old centre who notched the 20th goal of his rookie campaign. “He tipped it around (Frank) Corrado and (Ryan) Murphy and we went in 2-on-0. There are very few guys who can make the play he made.”

Keefe, who was disappointed by the way in which his club had played during the first two games of its road trip, was excited by the play Miller made.

“As soon as he poked the puck away from their guy, I knew the winning goal was coming,” said Keefe, whose team dropped a 7-4 decision Thursday in Windsor before losing 6-2 in Guelph one night later. “The play he made is an example of what we'd been talking about. That's veterans stepping up when the game is on the line. We had to kill a big penalty and our captain stepped up and made a big play.”

Not only was the play big, the victory could prove critical in the final Ontario Hockey League standings.

The Hounds (35-24-3-3) regained sole possession of sixth place in the Western Conference, two points up on seventh-place Sarnia (35-25-0-4).

The Sting lost 4-2 to Guelph Sunday.

The Storm (37-22-1-4) holds fifth place, three points up on the Hounds with four regular season games remaining.

Both the Soo and Sarnia have three games left to play.

“This was exactly the type of game we needed to get our guys ready for playoff hockey,” said Keefe, whose team entertains Plymouth Wednesday and Kitchener Saturday before closing the regular season Sunday against London.

All three Essar Centre starts begin at 7:07 p.m.

“We needed this to get back on track and it shows what we're capable of,” said Keefe, whose club held a 46-41 edge in shots. “We want our leaders to give us push-back and Colin did that.”

Alderson, who finished with a pair of goals and an assist, spoke of what the victory means for he and his teammates going forward.

“For sure, this gives us a lot of confidence,” said Alderson, who opened the scoring with a power-play goal just before the 13-minute mark of the opening frame. “We needed to rebound after the first two games of this trip. Kitchener has one of the hardest buildings to play in. But we never let up and stuck with things despite being down 3-1.”

Though Keefe said he believes Andrew Fritsch actually scored, Miller was credited with his 20th of the season, beating Rangers goalie John Gibson just 47 seconds into the final frame.

That trimmed the visitors deficit to 3-2.

Sergey Tolchinsky, on a nice feed from Nick Cousins, tied the game at the 13:38 mark before McCann, who also contributed two assists, put the Soo ahead at 17:49.

Tobias Rieder had a pair of goals, including one on the power play, while Matt Puempel also scored a power-play marker in defeat.

Keefe praised the work of Soo netminder Matt Murray, who blanked Kitchener by turning aside 27 shots over the final two periods.

“Matt was real solid, especially over the final 40 minutes,” Keefe said. “Really, their first goal was the only one you could fault him on. But Matt stepped up when we needed him and gave us energy and emotion. We fed off of that.”

But the Greyhounds nearly cost themselves with late penalties.

Cousins took a 10-minute misconduct for abuse of an official at the 15:44 mark.

And Alderson, at 16:14, and Miller, at 18:31, were penalized for hooking.

When asked about the penalties, Keefe said he believed the Hounds “were dealt a bad hand. I don't believe there'll be a game again when those calls are made.”

Still, he praised his players for “pushing through it. I'm excited by how we responded and dealt with being short-handed. It was great to see.”

Even when the visitors were behind, Keefe added, he wasn't upset with the way in which they were playing.

“It's disturbing,” Rangers head coach and general manager Steve Spott said of the third period collapse, during an interview with the Kitchener Record newspaper. “We have to have that mental toughness and killer instinct to put teams away.”

Notes: Disappointed with the recent play of forward David Broll, Keefe made the four-year veteran a healthy scratch Sunday. Explaining Broll's absence, the coach said the Hounds “need to get more out of David.”

Following weekend action, Sarnia's Charles Sarault (22-82-104) holds a three-point lead in the OHL scoring race.

Cousins (26-75-101) and Vincent Trocheck (48-53-101) of Plymouth are tied for second place.